1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to safety belts for vehicles and, more particularly, to a safety belt for a vehicle which is configured in such a way that a user wears the seat belt in a manner similar to that of suspenders so that pressure is prevented from being concentrated on a portion of the body of the user, and impact is evenly dispersed to the body of the user, thus safely protecting the user even if an unexpected accident occurs when the vehicle is in motion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in traffic accidents, such as vehicle collision or rollover accidents, people in vehicles are mainly injured by the following reasons: a person in a vehicle which has been in motion is thrown out of the vehicle under the influence of inertia and is shocked by colliding with the road; a driver collides with the windshield, dashboard, etc., resulting in serious head or neck damage; or the chest of the driver is damaged by colliding with the steering wheel.
Although safety belts for vehicles cannot fundamentally prevent traffic accidents, they hold users, who are sitting on seats, to prevent the users from being thrown out of the vehicles or colliding with parts in the passenger compartments when traffic accidents occur. Therefore, safety belts mitigate the fatality rate or the extent of injuries in traffic accidents. Further, laws have been established to make it mandatory to wear safety belts.
Safety belts for vehicles must be able to reliably protect users in case of an emergency. Particularly, in the case of the driver's seat, the safety belts must not make it inconvenient for drivers to drive vehicles.
As shown in FIG. 1, such a safety belt for a vehicle typically includes a belt 10 which supports the body of a user, a retractor 12 around which the belt 10 is wound, a tongue plate 14 which is coupled to the belt 10, a buckle 16 to which the tongue plate 14 coupled to the belt 10 is fastened to hold the belt 10, and an anchor 18 which is used as a shaft for supporting the belt 10. The belt 10 comprises a shoulder belt part 10a and a waist belt part 10b. 
As such, it is obvious that the safety belts for vehicles are very effective at reducing human injury or fatalities in accidents.
In other words, wearing a safety belt markedly reduces the extent of injury compared to when it is not worn. However, despite wearing the safety belt, the neck, stomach, chest, waist, etc., of a user may be injured.
In detail, the safety belt includes the shoulder belt part, and the waist belt part. In a collision, the shoulder belt part supports the upper body of the user, and the waist belt part supports the pelvic region. However, because the position at which the waist belt part is disposed on the body of the user is unstable, for example, if the user sits in such a way that his/her back is bent when the vehicle is in motion, in the majority of cases, the waist belt part is disposed on the lower abdomen rather than being maintained in the initial position. In this case, a collision may cause problems, such as enterorrhexis, fracturing of the spine, etc.
Furthermore, in a collision, the belt is prevented from being unwound, but the upper body of the user is biased forwards by inertial force. Due to this, as the length of the shoulder belt part extends, the waist belt part is tightened, thus causing enterorrhexis, fracture of spine, etc.
In addition, under normal conditions, the safety belt compresses portions of the body of the user, making the user uncomfortable. Thus, some drivers may use a clip to loosen the belt when driving a vehicle. This is very dangerous, for example, increasing the extent of injury, when a collision occurs.
Moreover, if the safety belt that the user is wearing loosens, when an airbag deploys in a collision, the airbag may intensively strike the upper body of the user.
In this case, a large impact is applied to the user by the pressure of the airbag just as the airbag strikes the user. This may cause the user to be injured by, for example, a neck fracture.
Further, if the user inclines the seat back rearwards to take a comfortable position, the safety belt cannot reliably support the user because it is spaced apart from the body of the user. In a collision, the body of the user is tossed forwards, thus increasing the extent of injury.
Meanwhile, the conventional safety belt is designed for an adult. Therefore, in the case of an infant or child, a separate infant safety belt is required. Expenses for purchasing the separate infant safety belt increase the financial burden. Furthermore, a lot of time is required to install the infant safety belt.